September 07, 1961 Report on the Work of the Delegation of the ALP to the 4Th Congress of the Korean Workers' Party
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Digital Archive digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org International History Declassified September 07, 1961 Report on the Work of the Delegation of the ALP to the 4th Congress of the Korean Workers' Party Citation: “Report on the Work of the Delegation of the ALP to the 4th Congress of the Korean Workers' Party,” September 07, 1961, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, AQPPSH, MPP Korese, V. 1961, D4.Obtained by Ana Lalaj and translated by Enkel Daljani. http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/114424 Summary: Manush Myftiu reports on the 4th Congress of the Korean Workers’ Party. Credits: This document was made possible with support from the Leon Levy Foundation. Original Language: Albanian Contents: English Translation REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE DELEGATION OF THE ALP TO THE 4TH CONGRESS OF THE KOREAN WORKERS’ PARTY The delegation of the ALP that took part in the 4th Congress of the Korean Workers’ Party set off from Tirana on September 7, 1961. In Moscow our delegation was received by representatives of the Chinese and Korean embassies as well as the Albanian diplomatic corpus. There were no representatives from the Soviet side. During the two days it spent in Moscow, the delegation stayed at the embassy of the People’s Republic of Albania. On September 8, the delegation left for Korea on an airplane with many other delegations from Europe and Latin America who during the days they had stayed in Moscow had been guests of the soviets. During the trip they were all cool to us and hesitated to talk to us. When we stopped at the city of Omsk, the Secretary of the Party Committee who had come out to greet the delegations, upon learning that we were Albanian and upon recognizing Comrade Thoma Deljana with whom he had attended the party school in Moscow, gave our delegation a very warm welcome and this fact drew the attention of the other delegations. In Pyongyang, a warm welcome was extended to the delegations that arrived with our plane. The entire Political Bureau with Comrade [General Secretary of the Korean Worker’s Party (KWP)] Kim Il Sung at the front as well as the people carrying flowers in their hands had come out to greet us. After being photographed with the comrades of the Political Bureau, accompanied by the member of the Political Bureau and the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the city of Pyongyang, we were sent to a special villa outside the city which was placed at our delegation’s disposal. On September 11, 1961 the proceedings of the 4th Congress of the Korean Workers’ Party were declared open. There were 32 foreign delegations from all the continents of the world taking part in the congress. The soviet delegation was headed by Kozlov and the Chinese one by Comrade Deng Xiaoping. The delegations of the countries of popular democracy were headed by members and candidates of the Political Bureaus. There were 1160 delegates with deliberative votes and 73 with consultative votes taking part in the congress. The ratio of representation was 1:1000. Comrade Kim Il Sung was chosen as a delegate by all the party organizations. Over 50% of the delegates were workers, 27% peasants, 11% civil servants, etc. The majority of the delegates were old comrades, fighters, innovators, and Heroes of Socialist Work. 172 of them had taken part in the war against Japan, 396 in the patriotic war, 85% were decorated and 66 were Heroes of Socialist Work. 83% of the delegates had over 10 years of party experience and only 36% of them had entered the party after the liberation. In the field of education level 746 delegates had finished higher learning schools. 13.5% of the delegates were women. The congress proceeded according to this agenda: 1. The Report of the CC—by Comrade Kim Il Sung 2. The Report of the Commission of Revision 3. The Approval of the 7 year plan—by Comrade Kim Il Sung 4. The Election of the Central Organs The congress lasted 8 days, from September 11 to 18 1961. In the Report of the CC read by Comrade Kim Il Sung, there was included a detailed analysis of the internal situation in the country, the great successes achieved by North Korea not only in the curing of the wounds left by war, but also in the further development, especially in the field of heavy industry. The work on this industry in Korea was achieved alongside a brutal war with the enemies of the party and the people who sought only the development of the light industry and the supplying with goods of wide consumption. The 4th Congress demonstrated once again the correctness of the line of the Korean Workers’ Party when it decided to follow the course of the development of the heavy industry. The congress was named “The Congress of the Winners” because in both the cities and the villages the work on the socialist transformations was completed and the foundations of socialism had been laid. The congress showed once again the unbreakable unity of the party and the people around the CC with Comrade Kim Il Sung at its helm. The delegates showed their optimism about the achieved results and for the great perspectives that are opened to their country in the future. The enthusiasm and the optimism were very visible, especially amongst the people, in all the meetings and conversations we had with them. They were embodied in the great and massive movement, the Chollima, (The Flying Horse) which had developed into a great popular push for bigger steps ahead. With the execution of this plan North Korea becomes a socialist country with an advance industry and a developed agriculture. The fulfillment of this plan [illegible handwritten notes] creates great possibilities for [illegible handwritten notes] the peaceful unification of the country. But we think that in both the report by Comrade Kim Il Sung and in the discussions very little was said about the international situation. There was no Marxist analysis based on the Moscow declaration of 1960 done to the international situation and there was hesitation to openly declare their opinions. In other words, the congress gave you the sense that nothing has happened lately in the international communist movement and that everything goes on smoothly. Applauses were extended to both the speeches by Kozlov and the delegates that represented the opportunist parties and to the speech by Comrade Deng Xiaoping, the one by our delegation, etc. Nonetheless, it should be noted that in those few words in which the international situation was mentioned, imperialism was heavily denounced, especially American imperialism, revisionism was called the main danger to the international communist movement, the Yugoslav revisionism was denounced, and as to the program of the CP of the Soviet Union all that was said was that it opens marvelous perspectives for the construction of the communist society and that it boundlessly inspires the entire progressive humanity, because they can see the bright future towards which the soviet people walk. (The other reports and materials that we received were handed over to the Foreign Affairs Directorate of the CC.) In his speech, Kozlov spoke about the successes achieved by the Korean people. He said the Khrushchev is very interested about the socialist countries in Asia and that they be a role model to the rest of the peoples in Asia. Then he spoke mainly of the program of the CP of the Soviet Union and said that the Soviet Union will be ready to defend any socialist country. He said that they have the same opinions on the foreign affairs issues with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Finally he gave a painting of Lenin as a present to the congress. The delegates reacted to his speech in the same fashion as with all the other speeches and when he mentioned the name of Khrushchev using a louder voice, the delegates applauded as usual, sometimes they did not applaud. [Handwritten text]. In his speech, Comrade Deng Xiaoping addressed the congress as “The Congress of Winners.” He said that the Korean Workers’ Party has followed a correct course on the matter of the unification of Korea and mentioned that the heroic struggle of the Korean people against the American imperialism is a great exhibition of the proletarian internationalism, because through that war, the Korean people defended not only its country, but also the People’s Republic of China and the entire socialist camp. He said that the Korean Workers’ Party fights against revisionism as the main danger to the international communist movement. “We are happy,” he said, “to have such a party as our neighbor.” He spoke against the plans of the American imperialism for war and said that Yugoslavia is more and more turning into an American base against the peoples of Asia. After approving of the latest measures taken by the soviet government for the restarting of the nuclear weapons testing, he said that from Albania to Vietnam and from Germany to Korea we should all be ready to defend the peace. The Japanese delegate, Miyamoto, said that the Japanese communists are waging a brutal struggle in two fronts: against the American imperialism and against the Japanese bourgeoisie. The opportunists continued to greatly damage the Japanese Communist Party, but they were destroyed and expelled from the party before the Party Congress. “Now,” he said, “we are stronger.” Of the other delegations that addressed the congress, only Kim Stoyka (Romania), Georgi Chankov (Bulgaria), and the Czechoslovakian delegate mentioned Khrushchev by name, while the others never brought him up.